Baltimore man sentenced to 11 years in prison for prostitution, sex trafficking of minor

By Colin Campbell, The Baltimore Sun

A Baltimore man charged with running a prostitution business and sex trafficking a minor was sentenced by a U.S. District Court judge Monday to more than 11 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

Franklin Roosevelt "Frank" Coit, 35, operated a brothel on Madison Avenue with Jamar Marvin Simmons, a 31-year-old ex-Baltimore firefighter who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday, according to the pair's plea deal. Coit will be required to register as a sex offender after his release.

Aside from the Madison brothel, the two rented hotel rooms and a Maryland home for prostitution; falsely advertised for exotic dancing and an escort service to recruit women, including a minor; and brought the woman from seven states — as far as South Dakota and Texas — to prostitute them, according to a Department of Justice news release.

They took sexually explicit photographs of the women and posted them online to advertise the prostitution, and they shared the money they made and used a gun to protect the business, the release said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Maryland Child Exploitation Task Force worked with several federal, state and local enforcement agencies to bust the prostitution ring.

I read with sadness the editorial "A house of ill repute" (July 28 ) about a house on Bel Air Road in Fullerton. It shattered the notion that prostitution is a victimless crime — these women were trafficked slaves, far from home and anyone who saw them as a person with a heart and soul. The men...